Spring 2014 (tentative)

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Linguistics courses
Course number Course title Section Instructor Days Time Room

CAS LX 250

Introduction to Linguistics

 A1 Barnes TR 11-12:30 TBA
S1 TBA F 9-10 TBA
S2 TBA F 10-11 TBA
S3 TBA F 11-12 TBA
S4 TBA F 12-1 TBA
S5 TBA F 1-2 TBA
S6 TBA F 2-3 TBA
Study of the fundamental properties that all languages share, and of how languages differ, with respect to structure (sound system, word formation, syntax), expression of meaning, acquisition, variation, and change; cultural and artistic uses of languages; comparison of oral, written, and signed languages.
  • Satisfies CAS Divisional Studies course requirements for the Humanities.
  • Students signing up for CAS LX 250 A1 should also sign up for one of the Friday discussion sections.

CAS LX 320

Language, Race, and Gender

 Erker MWF 10-11 TBA
Do women talk differently from men? How do race and ethnicity relate to the way people use language? This course examines these inter-related questions from the perspective of modern sociolinguistic theory, analyzing a range of languages and communities throughout the world. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]

CAS LX 502

Semantics I

 A1 Hagstrom TR 11-12:30 TBA
Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. In this course, we will examine meaning from a variety of perspectives, including: how it is encoded in words and sentences, how native speakers interpret language, and how truth and falsehood can emerge from the complexity of the grammar. We will also touch on various aspects of pragmatics - the function of meaning in a communicative setting. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]
  • Satisfies CAS Divisional Studies course requirements for the Humanities.

CAS LX 521

Morphology

 A1 Baronian TR 12:30-2 TBA
Survey of the different ways in which words are related in various languages. Combinatorial morphology (affixes, roots, etc.) and process morphology (ablaut, reduplication, etc.). Issues at the interfaces: morphonology, morphoprosody, morphosyntax, and the semantic compositionality of words. Basic introduction to some of the main theoretical frameworks. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]
  • Satisfies CAS Divisional Studies course requirements for the Humanities.

CAS LX 522

Syntax I

 A1 Hagstrom TR 3:30-5 TBA
Introduction to the logical structure and organization of language, and to generative theory. Application of principles of syntactic analysis to students' own and other languages through data-oriented problems from different language types. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]
  • Satisfies CAS Divisional Studies course requirements for the Humanities.

CAS LX 525

Prosody

 A1 Barnes TR 2-3:30 TBA
Exploration of the melodic and rhythmic aspects of the languages of the world. Emphasis on theoretical and experimental approaches to cross-linguistic typology. Specific topics include: syllables and syllable-weight, rhythm and speech timing; stress and metrics; tone and intonation. [Prereq: CAS LX 510 Phonetics or consent of instructor.]

CAS LX 535

Historical and Comparative Linguistics

 A1 Baronian TR 9:30-11 TBA
Introduction to language change and the methodology of historical linguistic analysis, using data from a wide array of languages. Investigates genetic relatedness among languages, language comparison, historical reconstruction, and patterns and principles of change in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 Introduction to Linguistics or consent of instructor.]
  • Satisfies CAS Divisional Studies course requirements for the Humanities.
 
Related courses at BU
Course number Course title Section Instructor Days Time Room

CAS LF 502

French Syntax

 A1 Neidle MWF 12-1 TBA
(Conducted in French) After an introduction to some of the main features of the sentence structure of French (with occasional excursions into Quebecois), attention will be focused on a number of specific topics in French syntax: the position of the finite and non-finite verb, the formation of questions and relative clauses, different types of subject verb inversion, quantifier floating and the position of subjects, the behavior of clitic pronouns, imperative and causative constructions. [Prereq: CAS LF 303 and CAS LX 250 or equivalent, or permission of instructor.]

CAS LJ 510

Structure of the Japanese Language: Syntax

 A1 TBA TBA TBA TBA
Introduction to Japanese syntax, covering a range of topics including word order, information structure, questions, types of verbs, demonstratives, anaphora, and relative clauses. Close study of Japanese data will also form the basis for comparisons with English and other languages. Lectures and discussions in English with bilingual materials. [Prereq: LJ 112 and LX 250 or consent of instructor.]

CAS LS/LX 508

The Structure of Spanish

 A1 Erker MWF 12-1 TBA
(Conducted in Spanish) The goal of this course is to introduce students to the structure of the Spanish language, with a focus on its morphology and syntax. We examine the internal structure of words and the inflectional and derivational processes that constrain them. In addition, the course introduces key concepts such as morpheme, affix, grammatical class, linguistic gender, nominalization, and verbalization. We also investigate fundamental principles of syntactic theory and analysis, with an emphasis on the hierarchical relationships among words at the phrasal level. We use naturalistic speech data, collected from around the Spanish-speaking world, to critically examine key assumptions and tools of contemporary syntactic theory, including X-bar theory, binary branching, thematic role assignment, and the concept of the sentence. We give special attention the notion of ungrammaticality as it relates to syntactic and morphological variation and change. [Prereq: CAS LS 303 and CAS LX 250 or consent of instructor]
  • This course can substitute for CAS LS 504 History of the Spanish language for satisfaction of requirements for both the Spanish and the Spanish & Linguistics majorss, and it can also fulfill Elective requirements in both; it can also satisfy the Linguistics major requirement for a course in the linguistic analysis of a specific language.

    The course website is on Blackboard.